Press Release

Cosmo is a summer group show that explores the abstract representation of things undeniably hot.

Graham Anderson employs a contemporary take on pointillist mark-making in his compositions of patterned shapes. Asparagus spears, melons, and other euphemistic forms float across the canvas in an array of colorful dots. A satisfying tension exists between each brushstroke where areas of raw canvas and pencil lines remain.

Polly Apfelbaum’s “Big Family” is a series of hand-dyed velvet spots constellating on top of two lined thrift-store pillowcases. The playfully grouped colors jump off of the regimented cotton cases. Similarly “Wavy Gravy,” a lined marker drawing on velvet both conforms to and breaks away from a strict linear composition. Nearby ceramic wall “plaques” appear childishly naïve in their construction, but betray a sophistication of touch and physicality.

Deeply saturated tones of blue are a consistent element in Anya Kielar’s works of sculpture and stretched fabric. The image of female figure emerges through manipulation of the lengths of fiber in a piece of woven burlap. The approximation of a bust “Lady Knight” sits behind a veil of dotted toile. A motif of heavily-lashed eyes plays with transparency and masking in a coy gesture of pattern, clothing, armor and power.

Zachary Leener’s ebullient geometric and amoeba-like oil pastel drawings are explosions of color on the page. Their pop fantasism is aggressively cheerful and alluring. Framed in lime green fiberglass containers, the works on paper act to draw the viewer in for a closer look. Gazzelloni Tusk, an obstacle-like sculpture protrudes from the wall made of powder-coated steel and clay.